The Justice Department withdrew subpoenas targeting three New York Times reporters on Thursday, ending a grand jury summonses battle just as a Manhattan federal court hearing was set to weigh the newspaper's motion to quash.
The withdrawal, announced during proceedings before U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, followed judicial criticism of the government's legal work in the case. The Justice Department had sought to compel the reporters to testify about sources for a July 8 article detailing how Trump flew from Turkey on an older presidential aircraft due to security gaps in a Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8, as a ceasefire collapsed in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
The move marks the second such retreat by the government, which recently pulled similar subpoenas against Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reporters. Authorities continue to pursue those who leaked the security details despite abandoning efforts to force journalists to disclose their sources.